Seeking freedom, chasing slavery!
Moses led recalcitrant, fear-filled, faith-void grumblers to the shores of the Red Sea. A hotly pursuing Egyptian army hemmed them in. Swords behind Israel, seas before them.
The Israelites looked up and panicked and fell into 'accusation', firing unholy darts. Kicking at the desert dusts and spitting venom the Israelites chorused:
... to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, “Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians”? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’ (Exodus 14:11-12)
Now turn the sun-dial forward to dawn. We all know the Israelites passed by the water-walls of the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians didn't. (ENJOY this entire faith-elevating story in Exodus 14).
Israel then raised their voice in united praise. They were in the Sinai Desert - not Egypt. Slavery was at their backs. Freedom was upon them.
An unwitting Israel had successfully navigated the waters of the Red Sea. But, within three days these now thirsty travellers were put to the test. The Israelites must pass by the pool of Marah, the waters of bitterness.
It is a rare soul that can pass by bitterness.
As a sow returns to the mud so too the Israelites chose slavery again.
At Marah, to a man they complained. They bolted the door and slipped the latch on freedom, only to be consumed by the persistent slavery of grumbling. (See Exodus 15:22 - 27)
Israel had not left slavery, they had just changed their captor.
The Israelites now walked, indeed lived in an arid, deadly and friendless wasteland - The Desert of Bitterness.
Bitterness casts a shadow that only the Son can disperse.
A SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLE: The body can be free but the soul remains jailed in slavery.